


Slow

by Amelita



Category: Finder no Hyouteki | Finder Series
Genre: Handicapped Akihito, Incest, Irony, Kidnapping, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-05-04 16:23:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5340677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amelita/pseuds/Amelita
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You can easily judge the character of a man, by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It had never been his intention to make the boy a prisoner.

Never. He loved Akihito far too much to ever do that to him. There was nothing the boy loved more than the streets of Tokyo, the colors and the sounds and the smells and striving to capture all the action around him with the lense of his little camera. And Asami was proud of him, proud of his passion and his free spirit. He would never want to crush that. Asami made every accommodation for him. He hired countless bodyguards to watch over him, to be Asami’s eyes and ears, his might and muscle when he could not be with his boy. To keep him safe. To protect that which was most precious to Asami Ryuichi.

He deluded himself that he could protect Akihito forever, even as he rose in power and prominence, and made more and more allies and enemies in the Tokyo underworld. He convinced himself that his power and his grip on the city was strong enough to keep Akihito safe. That no one would DARE touch the boy, simply because he had said so.

It worked, for a time.

The whole of the underworld was kept pinned under his thumb. No one bothered Akihito and the boy was free to flit about the city as he pleased, under supervision, of course. But as the birds always know when a storm is on the horizon, Asami woke that morning with a sense of foreboding hanging dark like a cloud over his head. It was oppressive, like a weight on his chest and he felt it the moment he opened his eyes. He lay for a moment trying to ascertain the feeling of disquiet. Everything was well. Everything was as it should be. Akihito was wound about his body like snake, his limbs warm and heavy with sleep as Asami pressed his tongue in to taste his soft, open mouth. The boy was naked as he always was, his nude body tight and perfect. He had started insisting they both sleep naked over the past few months and Asami was hardly complaining. His skin like hot silk under Asami’s palm as he skimmed his hand over bare flanks and soft thighs. The sight of his beauty roused Asami’s body to action, as it always did, but there was a tightness in his chest and an overpowering sense of anxiety that muted his lust.

He shrugged it off as simply too much whiskey the night before and took an extra vitamin with his coffee.

Normally he left his phone on mute, all calls forwarded to Kirishima. If there was an emergency Kirishima was in the next room and Asami preferred to be undisturbed when he worked. He was a stockbroker, amongst other things, and a gifted one at that. His razorsharp intellect and talent for numbers allowed him to analyze the rise and fall of the markets with ease, spotting trends long before anyone else could. It was just one of the ways he made his clients and himself insane amounts of money.

That day however, the numbers ran before his eyes as incomprehensible and meaningless to him as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. He was simply unable to focus. His thoughts kept wandering back to Akihito.The boy was so sweet, so naive and so innocent. His mind simply didn’t work the same way as everyone else’s did. He was far simpler and slower than most people but that was part of what made Asami cherish him so dearly. Akihito was different.

He was special.

Akihito was his beloved baby brother and there was nothing he wouldn’t do for him.

A touch of guilt tugged at his heart at the way their relationship had evolved and how he had unscrupulously taken every advantage. He had never intended to let what they had turn sexual…. but there was also no way he would allow another human being to ever come between them. If Akihito had a need, he would be the one to take care of it. Over the time that it had taken for Akihito to grow from a teenager into a full grown man, their relationship had slowly turned from brothers into lovers and Asami had no regrets.

He knew their shared bloodline should have mattered, but it didn’t. Not to him and not to Akihito. They were everything to one another and that was all that had ever mattered. No one else knew and it certainly wasn’t as if they looked like brothers. Asami was the spitting image of their father, raven hair, strong features and burning amber eyes. Akihito was the mirror of their mother, petite and fragile as an angel, delicately made and stunningly beautiful. There was no one that Asami had ever found as beautiful as his younger brother and no one that had ever roused the emotions his boy could, with just one glance of those wide-lashed baby blues.

Asami smiled as he traced the boy’s pert chin in the photo he kept in his desk but it didn’t ease the tightness in his chest. He needed to call his bodyguard, to hear Akihito’s voice, just to reassure himself that everything was as it should be.

Akihito’s bodyguard for the day, Hiro, picked up after only one ring, “Asami-san.”

The powerful man’s tone was brusque and impersonal, “Report.”

“We are on the corner of sixth and main, headed due east towards the zoo.”

“The zoo?” Asami confirmed with surprise.

“Yes sir. He was most insistent sir.”

“Very well then, put him on the phone please.”

There was a faint shuffling sound as the bodyguard handed the phone to Akihito.

“Ryunii-san!!”

“Hello beautiful. Are you behaving for Hiro?”

He grinned because he could practically hear Akihito’s eyes rolling in his head, “Yes Nii-saaaan!”

“Good, now please remember to-”

He was interrupted by the sound of gunshots. His voice caught in his throat. CRACK-CRACK. Two up close and several more from a distance. He heard Akihito scream, the sound of footsteps, squealing tires and the groans of Hiro and then silence.

Just silence.

His blood felt like ice in his veins.

“Hiro! Hiro! Report!” He barked into the phone, his voice tight and constricted as Kirishima and Suoh rushed into his office.

He waited for a second but only heard silence through the line. Hiro was either dead, or he had been taken too.

“Get a team together. Now.”

Kirishima nodded while Suoh took out his phone, “How many men sir?”

He stood calmly and cracked his neck with a twitch of powerful shoulders. Asami’s golden eyes burned with fire, his voice raspy with barely restrained fury, “All of them.”

-

 

[Inspirational Music: This Means War](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exlGc8eFXI0&list=RDexlGc8eFXI0)


	2. Chapter 2

It was easy, because no one was expecting it.

The Tokyo underworld was simply going about its normal business when hellfire rained down upon them. Seemingly within minutes, a perfectly coordinated attack removed almost every yakuza operative from the street. The drug dealers, low lifes and back alley rats disappeared silently into black vans.

Bags over their heads, wrists tied behind their back, they were assembled in an enormous empty warehouse.

One by one, Asami lifted their bags and asked them one very simple question in a very soft voice.

When they were unable to answer to his satisfaction, that was when he began to cut on the soft, disposable parts of their bodies. When that failed to elicit a useful response, he shot them in the face. One by one, he worked his way through men tied to every single clan head, weapons dealer, drug smuggler, brothel owner and criminal in Tokyo. It was like having his finger on the pulse of the city. He was certain that in that crowd of scum there was someone who knew where his boy was. And they were going to spill the beans. No matter how loyal an underling was, all loyalties flew out the window when you put their cock in a cigar cutter.

But no one did.

As the bodies mounted, Asami’s patience began to draw thin. Each vehement swearing of ignorance, each denial that they knew anything about a boy named Akihito, each pitiful pleading for their worthless lives, sent his frustration spiraling into a flash fire of epic proportions.

By the end of the morning, Asami had no new leads and a pile of mutilated bodies.

He lit a cigarette and considered his circumstances as his men loaded up the semi truck. The corpses would be disposed of in the foundation of a new high rise. There were many advantages to owning a construction company. Kirishima looked nervously at him, “What next sir?”

Asami inhaled deeply, the cigarette crackling and burning as he filled his lungs with soothing tar. Half of the cigarette turned to ash. He flicked it on the ground.

“We start at the top and work our way down.”

Kirishima’s face paled behind his sunglasses, but he nodded in understanding.

It would have been much harder to infiltrate Sena, the headquarters of the largest yakuza syndicate in Japan, if Asami hadn’t owned the firm that designed their security system. As it was, it was the simple press of a few buttons and Asami’s men were in. Moments later, they had the entire facility on lock-down and the clan head cowering in his office at the barrel of a gun.

Asami sauntered in with his hands in his pockets.

Yamagotchi’s face went from white with fear to red with anger at the sight of his most powerful rival.

“ASAMI? What is the meaning of this? How DARE you-”

“Cut the bullshit Yama, you took something from me and I want it back.”

The older man’s face wrinkled into confusion but Asami wasn’t fooled. “My men are searching this facility top to bottom, at this very moment. Things will go much better for you and your men, if you simply tell me where to look.”

“Asami, if you are talking about the hundred kilos of cocaine, we were merely assessing them for purity before returning them to you-”

Asami’s panther eyes glittered but he waved his hand dismissively, “No, that's not what I’m here for.”

“The guns! The guns then, and the anti-aircraft missiles that were missing from your warehouse? We received a tip, about a police raid you see and felt it wise to move the merchandise before-”

“Stop giving me more reasons to kill you Yama. You know what I want.”

The older man’s flabby neck shuddered as he shook his head in distress. Asami leaned over his desk and plucked a framed photograph from the surface. His fingers idly caressed the smiling faces shown beneath the glass.

“Have you ever had something so precious to you, so dear, that you knew you would do anything to keep it by your side, anything to protect it?”

“I don’t- I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Mm, that's a shame. Because if you had ever had something that you cherished the way I _cherish_ what has been stolen from me, then you would understand precisely what I am willing to _do_ to get it _back_.”

He suddenly turned and slammed the picture face down on the desk, shattering the glass and startling Yamagotchi back into his chair. Asami moved like a shadow forward to press the barrel of his Beretta into the elderly man’s gray streaked temple.

“You’ve stolen from me, betrayed me and you will die for it, right now unless you can tell me exactly where the thing I prize most on this earth is.”

Yamagotchi pleaded, “Asami-sama, please, I beg your forgiveness. All the drugs and the weapons will be returned to you two fold, triple fold, but please, please, I do not know what you seek!”

“Too bad,” Asami sighed as he pulled the trigger.

He was just wiping his gun off and placing it back beneath his suitcoat when Kirishima entered the office. If the sight of one of their oldest business associate’s head now having an oozing tunnel through the front bothered the poised personal assistant, he gave no sign of it. He clasped his hands curtly in front of his waist and bowed.

“We have found three of our missing weapons stashes and several thousand kilos of heroin and cocaine that belong to us, but none of his men know where Akihito is. What do you wish to do now?”

Another cigarette was tapped out of the carton into Asami’s palm and promptly lit. This time, there was just a hint of a tremor to his hands.

“Kill them all," he said coldly, and then added, "But bring the guns.”

Kirishima shuddered, but he did as he was told.

An hour later, Asami fired a rocket launcher into another mob bosses’ limousine.

Two hours later, he made a matching sets of concrete shoes for another rival gangleader and all of his loyal lackeys. Their footwear all matched as they floated screaming to the bottom of Tokyo Bay.

Three hours later, he chained another rival's body onto a slow cooker and let the heat rise, degree by degree, but all it got him was cooked meat.

It did not stop. It just went on, faster and faster as Asami become more and more frantic.

Hour after hour, one by one, he killed each and every man who had ever betrayed him, ever lied to him, stolen from him; anyone and anyone who even had a sliver of a motive to kidnap Akihito.

As the sun began to set over Tokyo, he was no closer to finding his boy. He stared out the window, watching plumes of smoke and listening to the shrill scream of sirens in the distance. He had single-handedly dismantled the entire Japanese underworld, in one day. It left an enormous void and as the last one standing, he was the only one left to fill it. He was poised to become the single most powerful crimelord in the world and by far the richest. But all that meant _nothing_ without his boy.

The world was seemed to be spinning around him. Everything was going too fast. White hot rage filled his chest with no outlet. There was no one left to question. No one left to kill. And no one who could tell him where his precious baby brother was. A desperation the likes he had never known creeped in and clogged his throat and veins.

That was when, for the second time ever in his life, Asami hit his knees and began to pray.

 

 

 


	3. Flashback

The last time Asami had prayed, was the day Akihito was born.

Asami’s mother died during the birth of his younger brother. They thought the baby would die too. That was what nearly broke Asami’s heart, for he knew how much his mother had loved her baby. Oh, how she had loved him. She would sing to the growing little one in her stomach, all the songs she knew and pet her belly and hold it like a baby. She let Asami do it too and even his Father, when he was interested.

Asami’s father loved the baby, but only because it was part of her and there was nothing in the world that he loved so much as her. He would glance at the baby in her belly and exclaim with excitement when it kicked because she was excited. Then he would bend down and kiss her lips so softly and gently and pet her stomach, but it was _her_ eyes he was looking into. Asami would be looking at her tummy in fascination because inside there was his baby brother. _His._ Asami was prepared to be the best big brother in the world. He had studied up on it, he was ready and he was determined to teach him everything he needed to know and he was going to share everything with him, including his toy trucks, even the shiny red fire engine that he loved best of all.

Asami and his mother would lay together at night when it was time for him to go to sleep and instead of a bedtime story, all Asami wanted to do was talk about all the things he was going to be able to do with his baby brother and all the ways he was going to be the best big brother in the world. His mother’s soft blue eyes glowed with pride as she stroked his raven hair from his soft childish temples. “He’ll never have to worry about a thing with such a good older brother to watch out for him,” she said knowingly.

The young boy nodded, his eyes glowing with intensity. He looked up into her eyes and vowed, “I’ll take really good care of him, Mom, I promise.”

She went into contractions two weeks early after suffering for days with severe headache, swollen legs, and stomach pain. Terrified of hospital and doctors, she insisted on a home birth. Only a few hours into her labor, she died. Within minutes, she bled out before the astonished eyes of her husband and an experienced midwife. They didn't know it then but she had pre-eclampsia, high blood pressure that bursts the vessels that hold the placenta on to the wall of the uterus causing the placenta to die in those places. The dead areas then compromise the flow of nutrients from the mother to the fetus, damaging the fetus as well.

The baby survived but only barely. The infant was pulled from her womb by the midwife while Asami’s father was still clutching his mother’s hand, screaming at her to come back to him. Asami watched everything from his hiding spot behind the curtains. He knew she wasn’t coming back, no matter how much his father wanted her to. He felt sad, but also relieved because his little brother was ok. He knew how much his mother had loved the baby and he knew that she would have been happy so long as the baby lived. Asami was very sad, but he forgot his sadness the moment he peered into the crib and saw those blue eyed, bleary and unfocused staring up at him. The baby was tiny, unbelievably tiny. But he was perfect to Asami, perfect with his ten teeny toes and ten teeny fingers. Asami knew because he counted every one.

Akihito was so perfect, so beautiful and Asami couldn’t understand why his father wouldn’t look at him. His father wanted nothing to do with Akihito. Not the day, he was born and not for all the days or months or years to come.

It bothered Asami but the eight year old was helpless to do anything but watch his father grow more and more distant, from both of them. No longer did he come to the nursery after a long day of work to play horse with Asami, still in his business suit. No longer did he read him stories or play games and let Asami sit next to him at his big desk and pretend to help him. The little boy thought perhaps it was because of the baby, but he realized that it was him too because his father no longer ate with him or played outside with him and those things had nothing to do with the baby.

He wondered at his father’s seeming abandonment of them, but Asami was a very practical boy and his father had never been more than a vague influence in his life up until that point. He missed his mother more than anything but he didn’t even miss her that much. His life was full and so was his heart, full to bursting, for every time he looked at his beautiful baby brother, the love inside him swelled to the point sometimes he felt he would drown in it. He felt at times that he might drown in the waves of protectiveness that washed over him and the awe he felt at how perfect his brother was, and how beautiful.

Asami refused to be separated from him, even for his lessons. The nanny was forced to let him because even at eight years of age, nobody could tell Asami Ryuichi anything. The cradle was placed by Asami’s desk and his foot reached out to slowly rock it, even while he was doing his arithmetic or geography. Every time the baby fussed, there was Asami to pick him up and love on him until he settled. The only time he let anybody else touch his baby brother was when the wet nurse fed him. She would place the baby at her breast under Asami’s watchful eye and when the baby was full, it was Asami who would take the baby from her, burp him with his own tiny hands and tuck him in for his nap.

Asami was the one who changed his brother’s diapers and soothed his rashes. Asami was the one who sang him to sleep and called him by his name; Akihito, his beautiful baby brother. The baby didn’t do much, he didn’t laugh or even cry. But he did smile, his teeny mouth curving into a wide arc when he saw his big brother. Asami knew that soft smile was just for him. Only for him.

He knew he was perfect because he liked to take him out in the stroller, the little eight year old would bundle him up and place him in his stroller and take him outside. Everyone who saw Akihito stopped to look at him, marveling at the baby’s extraordinary beauty; pink lips, golden curls and lovely blue eyes. ‘He’s so perfect!’ they would exclaim and Asami would stand there, his chest all puffed out with pride, because why yes, his little brother was perfect.

But as months went by and Akihito grew bigger and bigger, the comments of the people who passed by began to change. They began to ask why the baby’s eyes didn’t follow faces the way most babies did, why he didn’t raise his head or reach for things with his hands. They would whisper to each other and turn away from the baby. At first, Asami didn’t understand but soon they became bolder. He still remembered the first time a finely dressed gentleman had taken one look at Akihito and said, “There’s something wrong with your baby there.”

The man was a doctor but Asami didn’t know that. All he knew was that somebody had said something bad about his brother. He stood there quivering with impotent fury as the fancy lady beside him looked down her hawkish nose at Akihito and sniffed, “Slow. Its slow. One of those pitiful retarded children.”

The disdain in the lady’s voice triggered the boy’s protective instincts and he shielded Akihito from her cold, cruel eyes with his own body. His small fists curled in anger, “There’s nothing wrong with him! He’s perfect!”

“How rude!” She gasped and looked to her husband to defend her. He only shook his head sadly at Asami and handed him his calling card.

The boy pushed the pram quickly from those prying eyes and tore up that business card the moment he was out of sight. There was nothing wrong with Akihito. He wasn’t like other children because he was special, he was perfect and whatever other children did, that was fine for them, but Akihito was Akihito.

The baby didn’t lift his head, roll over, crawl, or walk when he was supposed to, but Asami never worried. Akihito eventually did. And it never bothered him, or worried him that he wasn’t doing those things when other babies were. Asami always felt that since his little brother was special, that the rules didn’t apply to him. Akihito was perfect just the way he was. He never cried, he was never fussy. He was always loving, he always wanted to cuddle and be held and even when he was sick, happiness was never further away than a bottle or a nap. And just as his first smile belonged to Asami, and his first laugh was for Asami, his first steps were towards Asami. Tiny tottering steps, years after other children would have but not too late. Just on time. Asami was Akihito's biggest supporter, his number one fan, always cheering the little boy on. If their other caregivers ever noticed anything was wrong with Akihito, they were too smart to say it, certainly not in front of Asami.

It wasn’t until Akihito was four that their father finally took notice of him. The baby had never said a word, not one. They were playing hide-and-seek. Their version anyway. Akihito couldn’t understand the game really. He couldn’t understand the purpose of the counting or the hiding and even if he did hide, he couldn’t remember to stay there long enough for Asami to find him. So their game was more ‘Seek-and-seek’. Asami would close his eyes and Akihito would run away, his fat little feet padding against the floor as he giggled uncontrollably. Asami would do just about anything just to hear Akihito’s sweet baby laugh and see even just a flash of his precious dimples. Asami was a utter slave to those dimples.

He would run after him, his footsteps slow and controlled always within arms length of Akihito in case the little one fell. Akihito wasn’t very good at walking, much less running, but it didn’t matter because Asami was always there, one step behind. When he got tired of running, Asami would take him up into his arms and tickle him while the little boy shrieked and laughed and kicked, but not trying to get away, not really.

Their father saw them playing together one day because Akihito ran into his office. He watched the four year old grunt and giggle and then crawl like a baby because Akihito was still crawling more than he was walking. He watched Asami playing with him, noticing that while Asami talked continuously, the baby never said anything. He sat there with his blank blue eyes, grabbing helplessly at Asami’s hands and reaching for his older brother to be picked up.

Their father frowned, “He can’t speak, can he?”

That all bewildered Asami, because he never felt at a loss to understand what Akihito was trying to say. He always grasped what Akihito needed, whether it was through his body language, facial expression, a particular type of cry, hand gestures, emotive sounds, or a combination of sounds that he made. All of these things served well to communicate his needs to Asami. He never felt the need to force him to say exact words. In many cases, Akihito had his own sounds for things, and Asami knew what those sounds meant.

His father took a hard swig of whiskey, “Fucking retard. Never should have been born.”

The words were like a slap in Asami’s face, like cold water being dashed over his head. He couldn't understand. All Asami could see when he looked at Akihito was his perfect baby brother. He saw his beautiful, perfect little body, so strong and vibrant.

But…. he also saw his eyes, so lovely and so pure in their blue, but they were blank when he gazed into their depths. They did not hold or respond for longer than a flicker. A slow sensation of cold settled over twelve year old Asami as he finally began to put the pieces together. Akihito’s attention span was short, far shorter than it should have been at his age. Many of his movements had no purpose, he was just moving for the sake of it. Sometimes clapping or dancing but without reason. He could still barely feed himself, he could not clothe himself. He could look at picture books but he could not understand what they meant. He could not _understand_.

But Asami did, finally he finally understood that whatever mysterious tragedy had befallen to his mother, had somehow happened to Akihito too.

It only got harder as he got older, for Akihito was older and bigger and his lack of speech and babyish ways grew more and more conspicuous. Asami shielded him as utterly and completely as he could from the outside world. But even he could not protect him from the cruel derision of their father. Akihito’s disability only deepened the older man’s hatred of him. His father was angry, angry that his wife had been taken from him and angrier still that it had been in the birthing of what he saw as a pathetic and useless creature. If Akihito had been more like Asami perhaps he might have felt differently, if he had seen even a spark of something worthwhile in his youngest son. But he did not.

The anger he felt infected the house, the shame and the embarrassment of having an imbecile for a child. Asami did his best to protect his little brother from it, but the poor little one felt his father’s hatred, even though he could not comprehend it. The boy understood enough to know that there was something unfortunate about him. And Asami knew that no matter how slow or foolish Akihito seemed, he could still _feel_. His ability to feel had nothing whatsoever to do with his ability to think. Asami could not understand why others could not see that. He could see his tears and his joys, his smiles and his frowns. Akihito felt _deeply_ and his feelings were so, so very tender.

Asami would whisper to him kindly, protecting him all through the night, telling him how perfect he was, how beautiful and how wonderful, but all of his hard work would be undone during the day by his father’s insults and quiet condescension.

The day his father mentioned putting him in an institution was the day Asami took Akihito away. The large sixteen year old took Akihito’s hand in his and they left the home of their childhood.

From that day forward, it was just the two of them. If their father ever looked for them, Asami never heard of it.

They never saw him again.

Asami took their mother's jewelry and sold it, for he knew it was what she would have wanted. It was enough to put a roof over their hands and food in their bellies but not for long. He was afraid, but Akihito was not. He couldn’t understand their change in circumstance enough to be afraid and for that, Asami had been grateful. His big blue eyes focused on Asami’s face like it was the only thing in the world that mattered. To him, it was. The child clung to his hand and Asami to his as they slept together in a narrow bed, on a thin mattress under a window that rattled with the wind.

The sixteen year old used some of his money to get fake papers and a fake diploma so that he could get a job to keep providing for them. The job was not hard. The hard part was when he had to go to work. He had no one to care for his simple brother during the day and so Asami would tie Akihito by his ankle to the bedpost and leave him in a diaper, with toys and snacks. The eight year old was not cognizant enough to know how to untie it. He did pick at the string curiously with clumsy fingers before turning his worshipful gaze back to Asami. 'Why?' his big blue eyes seemed to ask, even though he could not speak.

It broke his heart to leave him like that, but he had no choice.

Asami worked hard, but it was not for himself. It was for Akihito. Everything he did was to give his precious baby brother the best life the handicapped boy could possibly have. Asami's world revolved around Akihito. There was nothing he wouldn't do for him and nothing he wouldn't do to keep him safe.

 

**-**

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

-

Asami took a deep breath and pressed his fists to his temples. The answer was there. He was missing something. The simplest explanation was always the most likely to be correct.

Something simple.

Something right in front of his face.

His head snapped up with the realization.

Considering his position in the underworld, the simplest, most obvious explanation was that Hiro had been shot and Akihito had been kidnapped by one of his enemies.

But, what if the truth was even simpler?

It was a sad but inevitable fact that the more gangs arose, the more turf wars there would be and with those, came drive-by shootings. What if Hiro hadn’t even been the target at all, and just a bystander?

It was insane, but it was the only lead he had left to follow.

Asami’s feet were a blur as he rocketed through the office with Kirishima and Suoh, confused, but hot on his tail.

“The City Zoo,” he ordered as he piled into the back of his Mercedes. Kirishima stared at Suoh for a split second in total shock, then nodded and put the car in gear.

Ten blocks later, they arrived and Asami shot out of the doors and through the gates, throwing a wad of cash at a shocked ticket person. The tails of his suitcoat streamed behind him as the businessman ran full speed through the park towards his destination. The world blurred into streams of color until he came to a full stop.

The otter enclosure was crowded with people; men, women and children holding balloons. It was so full of people, that Asami didn’t see him until he nearly stumbled into him.

He stood with his fingers resting gently on the glass as he looked up at the otters with wide blue eyes.

It was something like having a heart attack, but in reverse. The constriction of his heart released and the blockages in his veins evaporated. Suddenly his body was flooded with the life-giving warmth of his blood. His fingers warmed and his relief pounded in his ears until he trembled where he stood.

All this time he had imagined the very worst of all possibilities. His precious boy taken by his enemies to be terrorized and abused, his innocence and beauty crushed beneath callous, cruel hands. He imagined him broken, bleeding, shattered beyond repair, too sweet and simple to understand what was happening or why. And here Akihito was, here he had been all along, in his most favorite place in the world with sweets on his lips and wonder in his eyes.

It took all the strength Asami had to keep from hitting his knees right then and there.

He sucked in one desperate breath after another as he waited for his hands to stop trembling.

The world finally slowed down and time stilled. People moved around him, but Asami stood still, patiently waiting for as long as it took for Akihito to turn around and see him.

The playful otters flipped and played, rolling over like puppies on the rocks and pushing each other into water. Akihito laughed in delight, enraptured by the funny little animals. He did not turn around until they finally disappeared into their den. His little shoulders drooped a bit and he turned away from the glass disappointedly. His eyes drifted over the crowd uncomprehendingly until he saw the tall man in a black suit standing but a few feet away.

Watching his face light up was far more beautiful to Asami than any sunrise he had ever seen.

The boy’s cupid bow lips arched out in a brilliant smile, dimples appeared in his perfect pink cheeks and his blue eyes lit up with joy. “Ryunii-san!” he exclaimed and Asami’s heart melted into a puddle somewhere around his feet.

The older man’s arms opened wide as the little blond tumbled into him. Akihito’s face was smudged with dirt and his mouth was sticky as he buried his face in Asami’s expensive dress shirt. He had been eating candy and no one had been around to clean him up properly. Asami couldn’t have cared less. He had everything he ever wanted in his arms.

His nose ghosted across the fine blond hair on top of Akihito’s head as he inhaled deeply of his sweet scent. With hands that still trembled ever so slightly, he felt Akihito’s thin back, his tiny waist and the swell of his plump buttocks, still nervous that he might be injured. When he got him home, he would strip his boy raw and make absolutely certain no one had laid a finger on his precious, perfect body. Akihito squeezed him hard in return and then wiggled happily in his embrace, pressing up on his tiptoes to smack kisses on Asami’s neck and collar. He pecked and pecked erratically at him until finally Asami stilled him. He cupped his sweet face in his hands and pressed kiss after kiss to Akihito’s cheeks and temples and brow and finished with his soft warm lips.

Asami kissed his little brother slowly and languidly, his mouth full of the passionate words he could not say in public. When they got home, he tell him all the words in his heart while he reminded him with his body who loved him most in the entire world. Yes, Akihito was his brother and yes, he was mentally handicapped. Their relationship had been forced to make changes when Akihito entered his teens, for the boy was capable of all the sexual feelings anyone else was, but Asami would be damned if he would let anyone take care of his baby brother instead of him. There was no one he would ever let come between the two of them and if you told him that what they did in bed together was disgusting and morally reprehensible, he’d have put a bullet in between your eyes before you could blink.

There was nothing disgusting about their relationship and no love purer than what he felt for his baby brother.

“My boy, my boy, “ he murmured, “My beautiful little Otouto, why didn’t you come home to me?”

“Couldn’t ‘member de a-dress.” Akihito said, eyes wide and honest.

Asami did not answer. He lifted the boy’s delicate wrist and looked pointedly at the pretty platinum bracelet cuff around it. On it was printed their home address and emergency contact.

Aki’s eyes fell to his shoes and he dug his toe into the ground, “I for-got.”

Asami’s voice was full of disappointment as he began to chastise him, “Akihito…”

Blue eyes flew up as he defended himself, “But Ryunii-san! I came he-ah! You said if I got lost to meet you at the ot-ters! So I came here and I wait-ed for you to come and get me!”

His mind flashed back to their last trip to the zoo and him looking into Akihito’s eyes and firmly reminding him that if they got separated, to meet him at the otter tank. The otters were Akihito’s favorite animal and he could watch them for hours. He couldn’t remember their home address or their phone number, no matter how many songs Asami made up for him, but THAT he remembered. Asami sighed. There was a mutinous cant to the boy’s pretty chin and Asami realized that in Akihito’s childish mind, he believed had done exactly as he had been told. He had done nothing wrong.

The older man’s face gentled as he thumbed that stubborn little chin. His voice was soft, “And so you came to the otter tank like I told you, and you waited here for me to find you.”

Akihito nodded with worried eyes, but he smiled as Asami kissed him again and praised him, “Thats my good boy. You did well, but next time, maybe remember to use your bracelet and call home, ok?”

He nodded, but it was obvious that he had already forgotten why he was nodding. He tugged on Asami’s cuff, “Can we go see the lions now? And the hippos? Can I have some cotton candy? Please, please?”

The sun was setting and the park was slowly emptying as dusk settled. As much as he would have liked to, the zoo was getting ready to close. Asami shook his head gently, “Not today babyboy, tomorrow. The animals are sleepy. They need to get ready for bed.”

At the mention of bed, Akihito yawned tiredly. He had had a long day. Asami smiled, “I think its time for bed for someone else too.”

He shook his head, “Not tired.”

Asami knew it was a lie and that he would probably fall asleep in the limo. He took Akihito’s hand in his and asked a question he knew would get a more enthusiastic response, “Are you hungry?”

Akihito nodded exuberantly, “Yes, please! Sushi please!”

Akihito loved sushi, not only because of the taste, the sweet dipping sauce and the fact that he was allowed to eat it with his fingers but also because Asami always ordered special sushi for him that was made to look like toys. His personal chef was adept at making custom sushi that looked like boats and cars, dogs and cats and all the animals at the zoo.

They drifted through the park along with the tide of people making their way towards the exit, Asami holding Akihito's hand while he chattered about his exciting day. Kirishima waited for them at the front gates, calmly holding the door for Akihito who smiled at him as he climbed inside, holding a plush giraffe Asami had bought for him on the way out of the park.

Kirishima bowed solemnly to Asami, “He is well sir?”

Asami nodded back, “He is well.”

The drive back to the penthouse was uneventful, though they passed numerous buildings that were still smoking.

Asami stared at beautiful boy who lay tucked under his arm, nestled against his side, humming childishly and petting his plushie softly. He was completely unaware of the blood on Asami’s hands, the death and destruction that had been wrought on his behalf. The day was over, the city outside was slowing down, the hustle and bustle was over. Kirishima drove slowly and unhurriedly. Everything was slow and peaceful. Slow and restful.

Others might have felt that slow was frustrating, that slow was dull or boring, or stifling. They couldn’t see the peacefulness of it; the charm, the joy or the innocence. No, most people wanted everything in their lives to be fast, as fast as possible, the faster the better.

But, Asami thought to himself as he curled Akihito’s fingers in his hand, slow, was all he had ever wanted.

-

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